What is certainly going to be remembered as one of WaterWorks Softball's finest moments almost never happened. Less than a week before the start of the tournament and mere hours before the registration cut-off; the team found themselves sitting out on another Tournament of Champions due to a paperwork mishap. After registering, the league office had informed the team that they were unable to locate a roster for the tournament eligible WW team. The Red Striped Warriors faced a similar problem with last year's TOC registration and, despite persistent pleading with league officials the team was turned down in '09. This year however, the team's crafty veteran lefty, Mike Carroll was thinking one step ahead by making a copy of the roster prior to submitting it to the league. A quick phone call and trip to Heritage Yards secured a spot in the big dance for WW and served as foreshadowing for a team that plays by the rules and never gives up.
The Grey Men that Bring Mayhem started the day against CottonWood Sports; an unfamiliar foe to WW. Early on the team showed some signs of light rust having not played in a few weeks. Cloudy and chilly conditions made bats cold and throws inaccurate.Once acclimated to the weather, WW settled in and played a rock-solid defensive game that allowed a sputtering offense to catch up and eventually take the lead and the game. After the game, speedy WW outfielder ZB would have to leave for a soccer tournament
Next up, The Gotti Boys. Again, an opponent new to WW and again the bats were slow to start. A sluggish offense would be reoccurring theme throughout the day as for the second game in a row WW would continuously strand runners in scoring position. Thankfully a watertight defense allowed an anemic offense to build comfortable a comfortable lead and maintain it throughout the game.
The win against the Gotti Boys meant that WW had secured their side of the winners bracket and at least third place. This also meant that WW expected to face a tough opponent in the semi-finals. The bottom half of the winners bracket had two teams that were tournament favorites. The Saints, who are known as a bitter rival of WW, had won at least three tournaments against WW in the championship game. Using primarily tournament players, the Saints typically have no problems tearing their way through tournaments. The other favorite, and new team to the tournament, VSSI made their mark by dropping the Siants handily after winning their 'play in' game. Waterworks picked up a break in the bottom half of the bracket when VSSI lost to SMASH. This meant that VSSI and Saints would have to play each other again in an elimination game and made the road to the finals a little less bumpy for WW.
The only thing that was know about SMASH was that they beat VSSI to make it to the Semi-Finals. Based on VSSI's reputation, this was no small task so WW expected a fight. WW also had to deal with more attrition when speedster Jonathan Frizwell had to leave the tournament for a previous engagement. What they got was a run-rule win against a team that put its leadoff batter on base only once and failed to score him. For the third straight game Mike Carroll shined on the hill and was backed by a strong defensive effort. When all was said and done WW cleaned house in the winners bracket giving up only ten runs in three games. The lineup also appeared to be gaining some momentum with the run-rule.
More to be posted/edited when I feel like it...
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